The big downdown will commence in Bonn, Germany in a few days. World Champion Viswanathan Anand will play in perhaps the biggest match of his life and a chance to cement his legacy among the world’s greatest players in chess history. His opponent… Vladimir Kramnik, who defeated Garry Kasparov in a match to become the disputed World Champion. Kasparov had broken away from FIDE which resulted in two disputed crowns.

Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik in Game #1. Photo by Frederic Friedel (ChessBase).

This 12-game match will begin on October 14th and end on October 31st with tiebreaks on November 2nd if needed. The prize fund is a handsome 1.5 million euro (US$2.35 million) and sponsored by Evonik Industires AG. The tournament will be covered on many chess sites live with the use of Foidos new game presentation interface. It features videocast and live game feeds from five different cameras. It’s impressive.

Foidos Chess is offering two free passes for the first two games on October 14th and 15th if you send a request to office@foidoschess.tv. There are daily rates available as well as tournament packages. Check out their website and watch the interface demo at http://www.foidoschess.tv/.

53 Responses to “2008 World Championship (Anand vs. Kramnik)”

GM Robert Fontaine interviews Albert Vasee, CEO of DGT Products about the new chess presentation system, Foidos. The system is innovative and will certainly revolutionize the way chess events are covered. FoidosChess will be offering a gamecast package throughout the games. Click on image below for details.

Both players are in Bonn on a site inspection. Frederic Friedel of ChessBase gets some very interesting shots of the venue including a sheer curtain dividing the players from the audience. You can see in the curtain from the audience, but the players cannot see out.

Hey,
What a fine start to this great battle of great minds……….Kramnik has got a poor record against Anand as black and a Remarkable one as white….lets hope he has worked on his black play and also avoid time trouble while defending against Anand!! – CHESSGURU (AKINSEYE)

The second game was exciting. I thought Kramnik had a good position after 16…Ng4, but it appeared he lost his way and had to sacrifice a pawn to get a blockade. Very interesting idea! In the end he had compensation. Looking forward to some Sicilians, but Kramnik will no doubt play the Petroff.

I visited foidostv for the 1-3 minute live feed. Nice! I heard some audio commentary, but Seirawan’s feed was not active. I can see where this can be a good development for chess. The commentary is done in four languages: English, German, Russian and Spanish. Below is my desktop and you can see the live feed.

too bad for Kramnik. he is now in a tight corner. and Anand seems to be on rampage with the black pieces.
I wonder if he will win a game if he continues with the 1.d4…..
1. e4 should be his ultimate weapon now to turn the table.
VIVA Kramnik

Kramnik resigned after 29 moves game 5.
he has lost as white again against a raging and untamed black piece in the hands of Anand.
Can our compatroit rise again and make the moves that makes him Kramnik?
1.e4 must be the next white choice to neutralise Anands sicilian and get the vital points we need.
VIVA Kramnik……VIVA Kramnik

Game 3
Daaim, Kramnik’s 33 Bd3 was indeed a blunder, however, Anand returned the favor with 33…Bh3? This is clearly not the best move. Better would have been the stunner, 33…Bxd3!! If 34. Rxd3, black simply forces resignation with Qc4+! Or, if 34. Qxd3, he will be soon forced to resign after 34… Rg2+ followed by too many mate threats on the back rank.

I saw that continuation. I still think is was a great win for Anand as well as the win today. I believe Anand’s team has proved to have understood Kramnik’s weaknesses. The opening preparation in the Meran was excellent. Anand may push this to +3.

Kramnik will need a win in the next three rounds to have a reasonable chance to win. He will have to do something he’s never done before… beat Anand with black. I see a flawed rationale in Kramnik’s thinking… win with white and draw with black. I am surprised at how may Grandmasters speak of this flawed strategy. Of course it is backfiring with Kramnik. On another blog, one poster noted the following stats:

According to the FIDE website, in his last 76 games before this match, Kramnik had scored:

after further analysis, I think mr. kramnik would have still have a vulnerable position with three pieces lingering on his third rank. one piece operating on short range and two long range pieces either menacing to take pawns on the king side and at the same time watching his possible passed pawns. an outstanding eagle eye for mr. annand. congratulations from the DarkKnight666

I think the U.S. needs to get the U.S. Championship under control before hosting a World Championship match. The U.S. Chess Federation has been on the verge of collapse a few times due to financial issues and political infighting. There has been a FIDE Knockout in the U.S. such as the Las Vegas 1999 tournament. The safest way for the U.S. to have a match here is for a player like Kamsky to win the match against Topalov and then challenge Anand-Kramnik winner.

[…] Viswanathan Anand has built what would purport to be an insurmountable lead over Vladimir Kramnik in the World Chess Championship being held in Bonn, Germany. After Anand’s win in impressive style today, Kramnik must be wondering how he has dug himself into a 4½-1½ deficit. Anand first two victories (games 3 and 5) were due to opening preparation in the super-sharp Meran variation of the Queen’s Gambit. Today Anand powered to a technical win totally dominating play in the middle game stage. […]

[…] Foidos TV has created a new presentation system for viewing chess tournaments in real time. It has launched this effort at the World Chess Championship match between defending World Champion Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. Foidos has five video streams in multiple languages along with interviews, commentary and a chat facility. These features make the action much more interactive and easily tailored to the user’s liking. Albert Vasse demostrates the new Foidos system. […]

Is this match really only 12 games?
It should be atleast twice as long.
I like both players but I haven’t found the games very interesting.
I guess being an oldschooler I was spoiled by the Kasparov vs Karpov matches.
Sicilians, Gruenfelds, Ne2 instead of Nf3, sacs on f7!
Man, I couldn’t wait to get my copy of the NY Times and check those game out.

After Kasparov eloped with Short the title just doesn’t seem as prestigest anymore.

History really missed the Kasparov vs Shirov match.
It may has been a shutout put it probably would’ve had some fireworks.

I guess I have enjoyed a few moves in this match.
What was that Ne3!
I’m too lazy to go look it up!
If Kramnik can’t find some way to compete, this is going to get real ugly!

I have the same view of the games. No Sicilians or classic openings. However, I must say I have enjoyed the dynamism in Anand’s games 3 and 5. In game 6, he played efficient chess like Karpov. I agree that the match should be longer. Even 16 games would have been more acceptable. However, it may not make a difference. Kramnik appears to be overmatched here. This can go up to +4 or +5 it will be the most dominant victory since Fischer’s +4 over Spassky.

I find the arguments by Kramnik fans appalling. They are making the case of why Kramnik is losing as opposed to why Anand is winning. They are also making the point that Anand is not really the World Champion from the tournament last year. Perhaps they will find a way to say Kramnik is still World Champion because he beat Kasparov. Kasparov has retired, so people need to get over it! They also need to realize that Russian domination of chess is over.

From reading the blogs, it appears as if Kasparov was favoring Kramnik. However, he has been impressed with Anand’s play. Certainly Kasparov will normally go with his compatriot, but here is a statement that I read from Mig Greengard, who runs “The Daily Dirt”. He is a personal assistant to Kasparov and has speaks to him frequently.

Kasparov doesn’t think Kramnik plays to win with black in game six. Says he should just worry about surviving tomorrow after such a blunder in game five, then decide on a game plan for the final six games. Sounds like pretty good advice since the chances of going too far and losing with black when in bad shape must be much greater than pulling off your first ever win with black against Anand. He also figures Anand should stick with 1.d4 since he doesn’t want to run into any surprises and playing for two results suits his match situation.

I still don’t buy this white/black issue since the strategy has failed miserably. Kramnik was trying to win with white and draw with black, but is losing with both colors! That’s the real problem. It shows a gap in the level of skill and preparation.

Another draw today, but there was some dynamism here. Anand seemed to have a more dynamic position and developed fluid piece play. Kramnik tried to counter with a kingside assault, but there was not enough firepower to conjure up winning chances. In the final position, they were analyzing f5!?

Anand maintains the three-point bulge and Kramnik’s chances are probably nil. I must admit that Kramnik is taking this result with class.

Your Oct 25th article. What is this Kramnik was the slight favorite? Kramnik was the total underdog, Anand was higher rated, is the current world Champion, and Kramnik, has been hanging out at around 5 or 6th place on the rating list forever. While Anand has Basically just sat on # 1 until very recently. Mostly Kramnik has just never been as good as Anand. Poltics is the only Reason Anand wasn’t World champion before last year.

I agree with your statements, but I’m reporting what the sentiment was. Kramnik was considered a slight favorite due to his reputation as a match player and his plus score against Anand. I have disputed this notion many times, but this was the widely-held view that Kramnik was a slight favorite in the match despite Anand’s stellar results in past years. However as I said, Kramnik’s match results are umimpressive at best. He lost to Kamsky, Gelfand and Shirov before being seeded into a match with Kasparov. Also he lost to Deep Fritz!

If you read blogs and previews of the match on various websites, you will see this rationale. Kasparov also picked Kramnik as a slight favorite. Anand was the World Champion before this match and Kramnik has done nothing to deserve his status even after beating Kasparov… who abdicated his FIDE title (as did Fischer). He avoided a return match with Kasparov and was not convincing in his two title defenses. His tournament play has been spotty for the past five years. Nevertheless, all this will be moot in a few days.

Very exciting game today! Anand went for another sharp line, but Kramnik received an advantage in the middlegame and had an extra pawn. The game got very tense and it appeared Kramnik had some chances. Anand kept it sharp, but at one point missed 35.Bxf5! to force liquidation. Then Kramnik missed 35…Bc7! and played 35…Qc7 forcing liquidation! 😕

Both players were fighting time pressure. Kramnik sacrificed a bishop for a passed pawn, but Anand returned the piece and the game petered out to a draw. Kramnik now has to win three in a row, an unprecedented feat to save a match. Kasparov did beat Karpov three in a row in the ill-fated match, but it is nearly impossible here.

[…] “I thought I was lost,” stated Viswanathan Anand during the press conference of the World Chess Championship in Bonn, Germany. Indeed. Fans near and far thought this was Vladimir Kramnik’s chance to close the gap. There are a lot of questions being asked about Team Kramnik, but perhaps a win could soften the angst. It was not to be. […]

Admission by Kasparov- Even he knew that Kramnik was the underdog, he might have wanted to claim Kramnik was great since he lost a match to him, but… The real is below.

“This result ends the illusion that Kramnik is a great match player. London was a unique occurrence and I still stand with Leonid Yudasin as the only players Kramnik has ever beaten in a match! Kramnik now has some work to do. His overly-defensive play seems to represent a general decline in strength.” (Garry Kasparov)

[…] After Foidos successfully rolled out their multimedia presentation software for the World Chess Championship, the Olympiad will feature Tadaah software which will allow viewers worldwide access to live coverage. This represents a shift in chess coverage and will provide more marketing exposure to dynamic world of chess. You can download the software from the main site. […]

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